h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Here are just a few related things I thought I'd mention. They Might Be Giants were a major-label band for a few years, but are no more. The eponymous debut and Lincoln both came out on an obscure label called Bar-None which was distributed by Restless Records, as did Miscellaneous T, a collection of B-sides from that time period. The following four albums (Flood, Apollo 18, John Henry and Factory Showroom). Somewhere in between the label that distributed Restless (Enigma) went bust and Restless regrouped and many of the albums on the label were unavailable for a while. It is possible that this is why the Then compilation was done (although this is only a theory). As of this writing, the band is on Restless. Severe Tire Damage was on Restless and the band has announced that its upcoming album (out in the summer of 2001) will also be on Restless.

Also, following the release of Long Tall Weekend, the Johns' released another MP3 only release through emusic.com, called Working Undercover for the Man. This one, was however, only an EP featuring six new songs and three jingles for Radio TMBG, an internet radio station programmed by the band. They have also started a monthly service (in January 2001) through emusic, which features exclusive mp3 downloads every month for members. So far material has included "archive tracks" (mostly early radio show and bizarre live tracks, along with some wax cylinder recordings), preview tracks from the upcoming "rock album", the upcoming children's album, some Malcolm in the Middle tracks, and tracks a CD TMBG did for McSweeney's art and literature magazine issue 6, as well as two live shows (one from January 2001, which was a live version of the entire Flood album and one from March, dubbed the "Linnell has the flu" show).